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Career and Technical Education (CTE) Transfer Research
Project: Improving Transfer Pathways for California
Community College Students in CTE Programs
Kelley Karandjeff, Eva Schiorring, Darla M. Cooper, Edward Karpp,
Terrence Willett, & Nathan Pellegrin
The Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges
Despite the current economic downturn, workforce projections indicate that California will experience shortages in its supply of
baccalaureate-trained workers in the decades to come, particularly engineers, accountants, nurses, teachers and law enforcement
professionals. Students often start their journey toward these occupations in community college career and technical education (CTE)
programs. This paper presents findings from Phase I of a multi-year study conducted by the Research & Planning Group for California
Community Colleges (RP Group) to investigate how California can begin to build these pathways. The report of Phase I findings presented
here includes: (1) a description of the infrastructure of CTE courses and programs currently available to facilitate transfer from California’s
community colleges, (2) an analysis of student engagement with that infrastructure, and (3) preliminary findings on student and educator
perspectives regarding factors that support and compromise transfer in career-oriented disciplines. The article concludes with a preview of
Phase II research currently underway.
Introduction
Anthony Sanchez1 enrolled in an engineering technology
program at one of California’s 112 community colleges a few
years after high school with the hope of getting a technician
job at a local manufacturer. While working toward his associate’s degree, one of his instructors commented on his strong
aptitude for both science and math and suggested he pursue a
baccalaureate degree in engineering. According to Anthony,
he never thought of himself as transfer material and no one had
ever pointed out that he was actually good with these subjects.
He was energized by the possibility of going further with his
education and earning more.
Yet, Anthony’s excitement was tempered when he discovered that the road toward transfer is anything but smooth. During initial visits with one of his college’s academic counselors,
Anthony received a laundry list of math and science courses
necessary for transfer to any institution, many of which differed from the courses he already completed for his engineering
technology degree. Moreover, the requirements for transfer
varied significantly from one university to the next. Completing them would require a considerable investment of time and
money without the promise of a guaranteed spot in a related
Anthony’s story represents a composite of student narratives gathered
through the CTE Transfer Research Project.
1
42 / Journal of Applied Research in the Community College
four-year program. With continued encouragement from his
instructor, Anthony forged ahead with plans to enroll in the
additional coursework in Fall 2009, only to find that many of
the classes needed for transfer preparation were unavailable
at his college—a result of limited departmental capacity and
growing cuts to education budgets. With a full-time job and
family commitments, driving around the region to complete
these courses seemed impossible. Anthony says that he felt
like the odds were against him.
While Anthony struggles to use his community college
experience as a launch pad for achieving his bachelor’s degree,
California projects a shortfall of 40,000 engineers by 2014
(Office of the Governor of CA, 2007). One viable solution to
addressing this demand includes increasing the number of students who transfer from community colleges to pursue a related
degree. However, data generated by the Research and Planning
Group for California Community Colleges (RP Group) in partnership with the California Partnership for Achieving Student
Success (Cal-PASS) suggest that transfer pathways between
these segments are less than efficient. Based on a study of more
than 4,200 transfer students who obtained baccalaureate degrees
in engineering between 1998 and 2009, the time to baccalaureate degree in engineering from the first term of postsecondary
enrollment in California community colleges is six years or
more for 60% of transfer students; and 26% of transfer students
require eight years or longer to complete this process.
How can California make transfer to baccalaureate-level
institutions more efficient for students enrolled in community
college career and technical education (CTE) programs like engineering? What factors currently facilitate or inhibit this transition?
What pathways are already in place to support students who want
to take advantage of the open access and lower cost afforded by
the community college system and use it as a stepping stone to
transfer in a high-demand occupational major? Is it possible to
improve these linkages so that more students can use the considerably more affordable community college system to complete
their general education and lower-division coursework prior to
transfer—an arrangement that has the potential to benefit both
students and the cash-strapped state of California?
Limited research exists to answer questions like these
as practitioners, policymakers, and researchers alike have
historically tied CTE programs to the terminal function of
the community college system. However, in recent decades,
researchers have begun to examine if, how, and why CTE
students make this transition to baccalaureate programming
and what other states and institutions do to encourage it. The
CTE Transfer Research Project2, led by the RP Group, seeks
to expand this base of information with a particular focus
on occupational transfer in California.
The RP Group (www.rpgroup.org) is a nonprofit
organization founded by community college researchers, planners and evaluators to increase the capacity of
California’s 112 community colleges to collect, analyze,
and act on data and other information that can strengthen
decision making and increase student opportunities and
success. The RP Group’s goal is to collaborate with faculty,
administrators and student support professionals to grow
a culture where, at all levels, decision making is driven by
evidence-based inquiry. To achieve this goal, the RP Group
provides professional development, technical assistance,
and research and evaluation services to practitioners, colleges and the system at large.
Background
The CTE Transfer Research Project offers an opportunity to advance the RP Group’s interest in supporting
institutional and system-wide enhancement efforts related
to workforce development and transfer. This investigation
is a two-part, multi-year study focused on how transfer
opportunities can be increased and strengthened for career
and technical education students enrolled in California’s
community colleges. Anthony’s story offers a small illustration of demographic and workforce trends that challenge
the traditional view that CTE programming ends with community college degrees and certificates and that these learners
are not also transfer students.
The CTE Transfer Research Project is now called the Student Transfer
in Professional Pathways Project.
2
Changing Student Demographics
Data on postsecondary enrollments show that an
expanding majority of students enter higher education
through the community college system (NCES, 2008).
California leads the nation in this trend with researchers
citing that more than three quarters of all postsecondary
learners start out in the state’s community college system
(Wassmer, Moore, & Shulock, 2003; Shulock & Moore,
2007). National research indicates that a significant
number of these students enter career-oriented programs
and often express interest in transfer (Cohen & Brawer,
1996; Townsend, 2001; Hudson & Shafer, 2004); however,
minimal data exists to track CTE student achievement of
this goal.
Workforce Demands
Recent workforce studies agree that California will
confront potentially debilitating shortages in the availability of workers with bachelor’s degrees in the next decade unless baccalaureate attainment rates are increased,
particularly in CTE disciplines ranging from accounting,
nursing, engineering and teacher education to emerging programs such as logistics, biotechnology and green
technologies (Fountain and Cosgrove, 2006; Johnson & Reed,
2007; Reed, 2008; Johnson, 2009). As mentioned above, these
workforce studies conclude that one part of the solution
to these projected shortages is increased transfer from
community colleges to four-year institutions, chiefly in
high-demand occupational disciplines (Johnson, 2009).
Economic forecasters specifically point out the need to
address shortages, and thus transfer rates, in science,
technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines
(Offenstein & Shulock, 2009).
These demographic and workforce trends have compelled many community colleges to rethink the traditional
silos between their vocational and transfer functions,
considering ways to extend CTE beyond certificates and
associate degrees and promoting transfer as an opportunity for students enrolled in occupational programs.
These efforts include forming pathways that encourage
educational and career advancement from entry to the
professional level and integrating CTE and academic
instruction (Bragg, 2001). California’s 2005-06 Governor’s
Initiative on Improving and Strengthening Career Technical
Education passed through Senate Bill 70 (SB70) and the
2008-12 State Plan for Career Technical Education produced
in response to the 2006 Carl D. Perkins Career Technical
Education Act reauthorization reflect the state’s efforts to
move occupational education in this direction.
Phase I of the CTE Transfer Research Project began
with support from the California Community Colleges
State Chancellor’s Office through the SB70 initiative. This
Vol. 18, No. 2, Spring 2011 / 43
part of the study focused on examining the current CTE
transfer system and its output; identifying factors that CTE
faculty, instructors and administrators believe support
and compromise CTE transfer; and analyzing CTE student
characteristics and transfer patterns. We summarize the
findings generated by this part of the research, which
concluded in Fall 2009, in the following article.
The RP Group is presently implementing Phase II
of the investigation with support from the James Irvine
Foundation. This research examines the involvement of
baccalaureate-granting institutions in CTE transfer and the
experience of students who have successfully transitioned
to occupational majors in California’s public and private
colleges and universities. The RP Group will use findings
generated by studying and documenting the journey of
these students to engage educators and employers in
efforts to make the transfer system more efficient and
effective.
Methodology
Phase I of the CTE Transfer Research Project included
a literature review and quantitative and qualitative components designed to answer three primary questions: (1)
What system is in place to support CTE student transfer
between community colleges and four-year institutions in
California, (2) How is this system working, and (3) What
are opportunities for improvement?
Literature Review
As background for the study, the RP Group reviewed
over 100 related publications and quickly discovered limited information and minimal scholarly research about the
specific nature and challenges of CTE transfer. Studies
generally featured innovative models thought to promote
occupational transfer as well as a range of factors that may
hinder this transition (see sidebars “Strategies Supporting
CTE Transfer” and “Factors Compromising CTE Transfer”
for literature review highlights). Because of the limited
availability of research on CTE transfer, the RP Group also
reviewed a select number of studies focused on traditional
student transfer, extrapolating how findings might apply
to CTE transfer students.
Qualitative Research
Economic and Workforce Trend Analysis
The RP Group performed an analysis of economic
and workforce trends to identify occupations that, over
the next decade, are expected to experience shortages in
their demand for baccalaureate-level trained workers.
To update information gained from a review of the major
44 / Journal of Applied Research in the Community College
studies on this subject, the research team interviewed
representatives from the California Employment Development Department Labor Market Division, the Public
Policy Institute of California and the Campaign for College Opportunity to solicit experts’ opinions about how
and whether projections should be adjusted to reflect the
current economic downturn. This portion of the study
resulted in the selection of the following high-demand
disciplines for in-depth study: engineering, accounting,
teacher education, nursing, and administration of justice
as well as emerging disciplines including green technology, digital technology and biotechnology.
CTE Practitioner Surveys and Interviews
Additionally, the RP Group conducted a survey asking CTE instructors, counselors, administrators, and others
engaged in CTE programs to identify factors that they believe support and compromise CTE transfer. More than 450
individuals from 95 California community colleges responded.
The project simultaneously conducted semi-structured interviews with 60 CTE faculty from a range of targeted CTE
Strategies Supporting CTE Transfer
A review of available literature reveals several emerging approaches thought to aid students in pursuing
baccalaureate-level preparation in a range of occupations. These strategies go beyond the traditional
approach of articulation as the primary conduit for
transfer between educational segments. They include
the development of innovative degrees such as the
Applied Baccalaureate (Ignash & Kotun, 2005;
Bragg, Townsend & Rudd, 2009) and the Community
College Baccalaureate (Floyd & Walker, 2009; Floyd,
2006; Floyd, Skolnik & Walker, 2005) which support
students’ pursuit of advanced training in occupational
disciplines.
Several community colleges have also formed collaborative relationships with four-year institutions through
University Centers to provide learners greater local
access to the baccalaureate degree and meet pressing local or regional workforce needs (Lorenzo, 2005;
Windham, Perkins & Rogers, 2001).
Additionally, Ignash and Kotun (2005) found that several states have crafted Special Block Articulation
Agreements or policies between community college
and four-year partners to facilitate the transfer of a
grouping of units or courses within an occupational
program.
disciplines. While most interviewees represented community
colleges, faculty from the University of California (UC) and
California State University (CSU) systems as well as National
University also participated. The interviews investigated in
more depth the questions explored in the survey and delved
into the challenges and opportunities that are particular to
individual CTE disciplines.
Student Perspectives Pilot
The RP Group also conducted surveys, focus groups,
and interviews with 42 CTE students at three different
Factors Compromising CTE Transfer
While states and institutions work on new ways to
support CTE transfer, a review of available literature
highlights several factors that continue to complicate
this transition. These include significant variation in
the degree to which baccalaureate institutions award
students credit for courses they have completed in
community college occupational/CTE courses (Bragg
& Reger, 2000). These policies often vary by institution
so that a course accepted for credit by one university
may be rejected by another (Cohen & Ignash, 1993;
Striplin, 1999). Further, students enrolled in community college occupational programs may not be
required to complete general education coursework
(Ignash & Kotun, 2005). In turn, students who later
decide to transfer will often find that they have semesters of general education requirements to complete
before they are deemed transfer ready.
Fundamental issues of communication and coordination between two- and four-year systems also contribute to the disjointed nature of career pathways
for occupational learners (Hughes & Karp, 2006;
Reeve Bracco & Callan, 2002). While some research
indicates that state-level articulation policy can facilitate transfer (Townsend, 2001), most system-wide
agreements for CTE students are limited to one or two
occupational disciplines (Ignash & Kotun, 2005).
The historical view of CTE programs as terminal may
additionally impact students’ transfer experience.
Despite their educational and career interests or
needs, CTE students often receive little encouragement to pursue transfer (Bragg, 2001; Townsend,
2001; Cohen & Ignash, 2003; Frederickson, 1998).
Roska (2006) also finds that when community colleges
focus on awarding certificates in CTE disciplines rather
than degrees, student attainment of transfer can be
negatively impacted.
community colleges representing health education, nursing, geographic Information systems, engineering, and
heavy equipment maintenance majors and a total of 26
transferred students enrolled in a UC engineering program and a CSU nursing program. This activity, which
is at the center of Project’s current Phase II, piloted an exploration of: (1) who and what shaped students’ thinking
about transfer, (2) where they found related information,
(3) what barriers and supports they encountered in the
transfer process, and (4) what advice they have for their
peers and educators.
Quantitative Research
In addition to these Phase I qualitative activities,
the RP Group engaged in a quantitative investigation of
CTE courses and programs and of CTE students. The
RP Group used the California Community Colleges’
course classification system to identify and investigate
the infrastructure of CTE courses and programs in the
state. For more information on this system, known as the
Taxonomy of Programs, visit: www.cccco.edu/Portals/4/
TopTax6_rev0909.pdf. The study began by documenting the CTE infrastructure of transferable courses and
programs. On the student side, the study followed six
CTE cohorts, each made up of first-time college students
entering a community college in a single academic year
between 1997-98 and 2002-03. Two categories of students
were included in the cohorts: “CTE concentrators” and
“CTE degree and certificate completers.”
CTE concentrators are students who have completed
12 or more transferable units in a CTE program such as
“accounting” or “engineering technology.” CTE degree
and certificate completers are students who receive a degree or certificate in a CTE program without completing
12 transferable units in one specific CTE discipline. The
study calculated transfer rates by dividing the number of
students who transferred from each cohort by the number
of students in the cohort.
The quantitative study proceeded to investigate
enrollments, transfer rates and destinations in four clusters of CTE programs: (1) those related to occupations
projecting high growth, (2) those related to occupations
with a high demand for baccalaureate-trained workers,
(3) those related to emerging occupations, and (4) those
with the highest student enrollment.
Findings
The following section presents findings from Phase
I of the RP Group’s investigation. A full report of the
first stage of the research can be found at http://www.
rpgroup.org/content/about-stp3.
Vol. 18, No. 2, Spring 2011 / 45
California’s Community Colleges Have
a Robust CTE Infrastructure That
is Underutilized for the Purposes of
Transfer
California’s community colleges have a flexible, expansive, and expanding infrastructure of CTE programs,
including a vast array of transferable coursework in CTE
disciplines that relate to occupations projected to experience shortages in the availability of baccalaureate-trained
workers. For example, in 2007-08, one college offered approximately 63 different transferable courses in computer
software development. During the same period, another
college had nearly 38 different transferable courses in
digital media while another offered upwards of 31 courses
in child development.
At the same time, the infrastructure is generally
underutilized in terms of its potential capacity to aid CTE
students in completing lower-division major requirements
at community colleges prior to transfer. The indication of
underutilization is the relatively low and declining number of students who complete a cluster of courses in CTE
programs (defined here as a minimum of 12 transferable
units). Between 1997-98 and 2002-03, as more students
enrolled in CTE credit and transferable courses and as
colleges added new CTE programs to the infrastructure,
the number of students in the cohort of CTE concentrators
and CTE degree and certificate holders decreased by 14%
from 43,914 in 1997-98 to 37,749 in 2002-03. Of particular
concern is that the number of CTE cohort students is particularly low in several disciplines related to occupations
expected to drive California economic growth, including
engineering, biotechnology, computer information Systems, and Environmental technology.
CTE Transfer Varies Significantly by
Discipline, College, and Student Groups
Disciplines
While the transfer rate for CTE concentrators averaged 20.5% across all disciplines, transfer rates and
numbers vary widely among programs. For example,
CTE concentrators transferred at an overall rate of 79.5%
in engineering while those in accounting transferred at
an overall rate of 43.7%. At the same time, accounting
programs produced an average of 5,036 transfers per year
while engineering programs produced only 181.
Certainly there are students who transfer into fouryear programs like engineering who are not included in
this study’s cohort. However, the low number of transfers fulfilling a concentration of coursework in a careeroriented discipline like engineering calls into question
46 / Journal of Applied Research in the Community College
why more students do not complete a portion of their
lower-division course requirements prior to transfer. In
the case of engineering, the state’s projected workforce
shortages coupled with the significant number of colleges offering 20 to 25 transferable units of engineering
coursework leads one to consider how it would be useful
to determine ways community colleges can increase the
number of concentrators in this program, and in turn the
related engineering transfer count.
Colleges
Transfer rates also often vary significantly within
CTE programs from one college to another. For example,
data from one college revealed a 76% transfer rate in
accounting—the highest transfer rate for that CTE program
area. By comparison, the college with the fifth highest
ranking in accounting had a transfer rate of 57%. The
difference of 19 percentage points between these rates
beckons questions about what certain colleges are doing
to lead the pack with such significant margins.
This research indicates that many CTE programs
have strong transfer rates, a finding that is inconsistent
with previous studies of transfer suggesting that colleges
are either transfer- or CTE-focused (Cohen & Brawer,
1996). At the same time, colleges with high certificate
completion rates in the CTE programs studied by the
research team tend to have lower transfer rates in these
same programs and may suggest a negative correlation
between transfer and certificate completion in individual
CTE programs rather than between transfer and CTE in
general. This discovery aligns with a similar results found
by Roska (2006) in a study of transfer in community colleges with an occupational emphasis.
Students
Among the 245,000 CTE students included in the
quantitative analysis, just over 50,000 (or 20.5%) transferred during the time period studied. This investigation revealed considerable variation in transfer rates and
areas of CTE study among different student groups. For
example, CTE transfer rates varied particularly across different ethnic groups (see Table 1: CTE Student Enrollments
and Transfer Rates by Ethnicity. While Asian students
make up 12.5% of CTE concentrators (those who completed a minimum of 12 units of transferable coursework
in a CTE program), they represent nearly 22% of all CTE
transfers. At the same time, Latino students comprise
over 28% of CTE concentrators, compared to 21% of all
CTE transfers.
Concern has been raised about the fact that Latinos,
the fastest growing population segment in California, are
less likely to complete baccalaureate-level education than
most other ethnic groups and are especially underrepre-
sented among baccalaureate holders in STEM disciplines
(Cook & Cordova, 2007).
The CTE Transfer Research Project found that Latino
students make up the largest proportion of CTE learners
concentrating in family and consumer sciences and the
lowest proportion in information technology—one occupational area expecting high demand and fast growth.
By contrast, the largest proportion of Asian students is in
information technology while the lowest is in education.
African-American students make up the largest portion of
CTE concentrators in education and the lowest portion in
agriculture and natural resources. Conversely, the largest portion of White students is found in agriculture and
natural resources while the lowest is found in education.
At the institutional level, practitioners cited the incorporation of transfer information into CTE courses and
faculty promotion of transfer paths as supportive of this
transition. Additionally, respondents referenced targeted
guidance in the form of faculty, peer group and counseling support, and counselors specifically assigned to CTE
disciplines as particularly effective in helping students
pursue additional baccalaureate-level preparation. These
institutional practices contribute to what practitioners
frequently referenced as a broader “transfer culture” at
their institution whereby the expectation for and support
toward the achievement of transfer permeates all aspects
of the students’ college experience—whether they are
CTE-oriented or not.
Additionally, community college practitioners noted
several intra- and inter-segmental strategies as useful in
The California State University (CSU)
encouraging and aiding CTE transfer. Specifically, there
System Receives the Most CTE Transfers are statewide agreements in place that facilitate the path
Reflective of the state’s Master Plan for Higher to transfer in child development and nursing (for more
Education, the California State University (CSU) system information, see sidebar “Community College Faculty
stands out as the top recipient of CTE transfers in the state. Lead the Way to Establishing a Transfer Path for Early
Among all CTE students in the cohort, two thirds trans- Childhood Students” and “California State University
ferred to a CSU institution, 13% each to the University of Nursing Programs Standardize Lower-Division Major
California (UC) system and to private in-state institutions, Requirements for Community College Students”). No
and 8% to out-of-state institutions. At the same time, cer- other CTE disciplines had such arrangements in place at
tain disciplines showed higher rates of transfer to the UC the time of this research. At the same time, practitioners
system, including computer software development and cited developing regional agreements, often between one
CSU and several local community colleges, around one
computer science at 48% and 52% respectively.
Interestingly, the data showed that there were more CTE program. Some respondents discussed university
transfers to the University of Phoenix than to any indi- partnerships that have developed across the state. These
vidual UC campus. University of Phoenix transfers were arrangements are designed to offer baccalaureate-level
more likely to be African-American or Latino students and coursework at the community college campus to address
less likely to be Asian than transfers to other institutions. local workforce development needs as well as issues of
distance and cost.
Community college practitioners also underscored
Some CTE Transfer Supports Are in
the importance of local outreach efforts in which UC,
CSU, and/or private colleges visit the community colPlace
lege to promote their CTE programs. A few respondents
Surveys, focus group and interviews with Californoted bridge or connector courses for students interested
nia community college practitioners revealed a range of
in transfer designed to increase their preparedness for
institutional as well as intra- and inter-segmental strateuniversity-level instruction. Finally, several respondents
CTE gies
Transfer
Research
Project
supporting
students’
transfer in career-oriented
spoke about the use of Articulation Systems Stimulating
Tabledisciplines.
1
Inter-institutional Student Transfer (ASSIST.org)—an
online repository of all arCTE
Student
Enrollments
Transfer
Rates
by Ethnicity
ticulation information for
Table 1. CTE
Student
Enrollments
andand
Transfer
Rates
by Ethnicity
publicly-funded education
All CTE Students
All CTE Transfer Students % Difference
institutions. Users of this
Count
Percent
Count
Percent
system, which is reported
African
16,578
6.7%
2,485
4.9%
-1.8%
to generate more than 1
American
million hits per month, can
Asian
30,607
12.5%
11,041
21.9%
9.5%
identify which CTE courses
Filipino
8,335
3.4%
1,865
3.7%
0.3%
transfer to the four-year
Latino
69,555
28.3%
10,667
21.2%
-7.1%
institution of a student’s
White
98,572
40.1%
19,536
38.8%
-1.4%
Total
245,637
50,390
choice.
Vol. 18, No. 2, Spring 2011 / 47
There’s Room for Improvement
Community college practitioners participating
in the CTE Transfer Project survey and interviews also
underscored several challenges to student transfer in occupational disciplines. Reflective of literature review findings, one of the biggest barriers respondents mentioned
centers on the lack of alignment between postsecondary
segments. Practitioners noted that the major courses
required at the two-year level for CTE students often
Community College Faculty Lead the
Way to Establishing a Transfer Path
for Early Childhood Students
In 2005, an association of California community college Early Childhood educators initiated the Early
Childhood/Child Development (EC/CD) Curriculum
Alignment Project (CAP) to develop and deliver an
aligned core of coursework across the system. A
team of faculty launched CAP by identifying courses
that provide foundational instruction for entry-level
teachers of younger children. The following year,
hundreds of faculty worked together to review and
modify this curriculum and ultimately produce a set of
course outlines designed to guide cross-college alignment. By 2007, the project formally recommended
eight 3-unit, lower-division transferable courses and
an EC/CD Major Transfer Degree incorporating these
24 units. As a result, this “Lower-Division 8” offers
students striving for a bachelor’s degree a clear path
and provides participating public and private universities an articulated transfer package.
EC/CD departments at local community colleges can
request an “alignment tool kit” from CAP that consists
of course descriptions and student learning outcomes
and objectives. To verify that they meet CAP’s criteria,
local colleges must submit an application to a blind
peer review process. A web site offers information on
the initiative and lists CAP-approved colleges.
With participants from the California Community
College and the California State University systems,
CAP offers one example of how a committed intersegmental team led by community college faculty
can cooperatively reach agreement on a curriculum
package that enables lower-division students to move
seamlessly between institutions to fulfill transfer requirements and benefit from a streamlined transfer
process. For more information, visit: www.childdevelopment.org/cs/cdtc/print/htdocs/services_cap.htm
48 / Journal of Applied Research in the Community College
vary significantly across receiving four-year institutions.
Additionally, many courses required for the associate’s
degree are incompatible with courses required for CTE
transfer programs. Issues of guidance also stand in the
way of successful student transfer, with respondents noting that an insufficient number of hours are provided for
the academic counseling of CTE students and that outreach
by the four-year colleges to occupational learners at community colleges is inadequate.
The relative importance of these and other factors
California State University Nursing
Programs Standardize LowerDivision Major Requirements for
Community College Students
California’s community colleges offer 75 Associate
Degree in Nursing programs and graduate more than
10,000 students per year. The CSU system hosts 17
Bachelor of Science Nursing (BSN) programs that
graduate approximately 2,000 students per year.
While the Associate Degree in Nursing—at least
during the recent nursing shortage in California—
provided graduates with ample job opportunities,
there is now increased demand on the employer
side for nurses to hold BSNs. In 2005-2006, CSU’s
Nursing programs reached agreement to standardize their lower-division major requirements through
the statewide Inter-segmental Major Preparation
Articulated Curriculum (IMPAC) initiative. Accordingly,
community college students can prepare for transfer
knowing that course requirements do not vary across
the CSU nursing programs they may be considering
for their BSN.
In addition to standardizing the lower-division major
requirements, the CSUs agreed on a general education
pattern for their nursing programs. Further, through
IMPAC, nursing and science faculty from community
colleges and the CSUs collaborated to collapse the essential elements of three chemistry courses formerly
required for nursing transfer students into a single
chemistry course specifically designed to cover essentials of general chemistry, organic chemistry and
biochemistry related to the practice of nursing. As a
result, transfer students can now take one chemistry
course and meet transfer requirements. However,
only a limited number of community colleges have
the capacity to offer this course which means that
students may have to commute long distances to
enroll in this potentially time-saving offering.
varied across disciplines. As mentioned above, statewide
agreements like the one standardizing four-year course
requirements across all CSU nursing programs facilitates
transfer for community college RN students. Meanwhile,
inconsistent lower-division major requirements represent
a significant barrier to transfer for engineering students
while it is less of a problem for those making this transition
into accounting programs.
Students participating in the pilot of survey, focus
group, and interview instruments universally spoke about
the need to provide two kinds of support to CTE students
desiring to pursue baccalaureate-level preparation. Learners noted the importance of offering personal and motivational support that makes CTE students believe they
can transfer. Second, student respondents emphasized
the need for accurate information about the technical and
logistical aspects of the transfer process.
Conclusions
Several key points emerged from Phase I of the CTE
Transfer Research Project.
• There is a need and the opportunity to increase CTE
transfer in many disciplines.
• The community college system maintains a large and
underutilized infrastructure of transferable courses
that could provide significant numbers of students
with lower-division major preparation in disciplines
related to high-growth occupations requiring a bachelor’s degree.
• For a large number of CTE programs—including many
projecting high demand for baccalaureate-trained
workers—the number and percentage of students
who transfer with 12 or more transferable units in that
particular program is low.
• The study’s preliminary findings raise a compelling
question: How many transfer students use the community college CTE infrastructure and how many bypass
these courses to complete lower-division major requirements after transfer? Put differently, is the problem one
of students’ underutilization of the CTE infrastructure
to prepare for transfer, and/or is it that few students
transfer into CTE baccalaureate programs? The project’s Phase II is currently investigating this question
by backward mapping the courses that students took
prior to transfer in several targeted disciplines including engineering, accounting, teacher education, and
nursing.
• The study uncovered a wide range of factors and approaches that support transfer for CTE students. Some
of these are statewide; others are regional in nature; yet
others are specific to a particular discipline.
• The qualitative component of the study also uncovered a wide range of factors that make transfer chal-
lenging for CTE students including limited guidance
on course-taking requirements; issues of alignment
between community college and four-year programs;
and incompatibility between course requirements for
AA/AS degree completion and those for transfer.
Preview of Forthcoming Research from
Phase II
If students transfer into occupational baccalaureate
programs without completing CTE courses in their field
of study at the community colleges, which pathways do
they follow and why? Which factors influence the way
they navigate their way through the system? How can
transfer pathways into these programs become more effective and efficient? These questions drive Phase II of
the CTE Transfer Research Project.
Specifically, Phase II uses three strategies to examine students’ path toward occupational baccalaureate
programs in engineering, accounting, teacher education,
and nursing, and administration of justice: (1) backward
mapping to examine and compare pathways taken by
students who completed baccalaureate degrees in the
targeted occupational programs; (2) implementation of
focus groups and surveys with students currently enrolled in the targeted occupational programs at UC, CSU,
and private four-year institutions; and (3) identification
of effective practices supporting transfer in the targeted
occupational programs.
The research team is presently completing its investigation of transfer into engineering. Step one included
backward mapping paths followed by 4,219 California
community college transfer students who obtained baccalaureate degrees in engineering between 1996-2009. The
backward mapping utilizes the Cal-PASS data system.
Participating schools provided permission for the analyses and only authorized Cal-PASS research personnel
accessed student level data. A sample of preliminary
findings include the following:
• Students are predominantly Asian and white and
males.
• Thirty-three percent of students required more than
four and less than six years from the first term of
postsecondary enrollment at the community college to
complete a baccalaureate degree; 35% required more
than six and less than eight years; and 26% required
more than eight years.
• Engineering students who transferred fewer units
from the community college spent more time at the
university completing their degrees; however, the reverse is not true in that students transferring 70 units
or more are no more likely to complete their degrees in
less than two years—and more likely to take six years
Vol. 18, No. 2, Spring 2011 / 49
or more—than groups completing fewer units in the
community colleges.
• Fewer than half of engineering students completed
their community college coursework at one institution;
29% attended two community colleges, 14% attended
three, and 9% four or more community colleges.
in convenings where educators and industry representatives will have the opportunity to reflect on how the RP
Group’s research can spark and support action leading
to increased transfer in their discipline. The RP Group
anticipates completing this Phase II research, releasing
findings, and holding related convenings in 2012.
Surveys and focus groups with 198 students who
transferred from California’s community colleges into
baccalaureate programs in Engineering at three different
baccalaureate-granting institutions (a UC, a CSU, and a
private university) found the following:
• One obstacle to completing lower-division courses in
engineering is that many community colleges do not
offer these courses.
• The lower-division major requirement courses students
had to complete after transfer varied widely within
disciplines and between institutions. In engineering,
40% of students transferring to the CSU, compared to
25% of those transferring to the UC, had to complete
four or more lower division major requirement courses
after transferring.
• The students were extremely resourceful, using multiple sources to determine and confirm which courses
to take prior to transfer.
Acknowledgements
In interviews, representatives from participating
baccalaureate institutions identified what they perceive to
be major factors supporting and compromising transfer.
One interviewee from a UC institution explained that
although many transfer applicants have completed the
units required for general transfer to the institution, they
have not completed the courses required for transfer into
the college’s School of Engineering. The interviewee explained that although the School of Engineering receives
about 1,000 applications a year from community college
students it has never been able to fill the 150 slots set aside
for transfer students.
Through additional preliminary research into effective practices that might support the transition of engineering students’ to bachelor’s degree programs, the RP
Group identified that some other occupational disciplines
have begun applying technology solutions to address
transfer barriers. For example, many high-demand health
occupations programs offer online courses that facilitate
transfer, particularly for students balancing school and
work. To reduce travel and the time required to meet in
person, these online programs concentrate lab work one
day a week or offer it during weekends or interim sessions.
This finding raises the question of how technology may be
used to make it easier for community college students to
access and complete lower-division Engineering courses
prior to transfer.
This and many other questions will be considered
50 / Journal of Applied Research in the Community College
The authors would like to thank the students and
practitioners who participated in the surveys, focus
groups, and convenings; the participating community colleges and universities who contributed data; the Cal-PASS
Analytics staff for their data collection and management
efforts; Jerry Rudmann, Diane Rodriguez-Kiino, Rogéair
Purnell, and Loann Solem. This study was supported with
funds provided by the Chancellor’s Office of the California
Community Colleges and the James Irvine Foundation
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Eva Schiorring, M.P.P., is a senior researcher and resource
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Darla M. Cooper, Ed.D., is the Director of Research and
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